CBS Television Studios announced today it will launch a totally new Star Trek television series in January 2017. The new series will blast off with a special preview broadcast on the CBS Television Network. The premiere episode and all subsequent first-run episodes will then be available exclusively in the United States on CBS All Access, the Network’s digital subscription video on demand and live streaming service.

The next chapter of the Star Trek franchise will also be distributed concurrently for television and multiple platforms around the world by CBS Studios International.

The new program will be the first original series developed specifically for U.S. audiences for CBS All Access, a cross-platform streaming service that brings viewers thousands of episodes from CBS’s current and past seasons on demand, plus the ability to stream their local CBS Television station live for $5.99 per month. CBS All Access already offers every episode of all previous Star Trek television series.

The brand-new Star Trek will introduce new characters seeking imaginative new worlds and new civilizations, while exploring the dramatic contemporary themes that have been a signature of the franchise since its inception in 1966.

Alex Kurtzman will serve as executive producer for the new Star Trek TV series. Kurtzman co-wrote and produced the blockbuster films Star Trek (2009) with Roberto Orci, and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) with Orci and Damon Lindelof. Both films were produced and directed by J.J. Abrams.

The new series will be produced by CBS Television Studios in association with Kurtzman’s Secret Hideout. Kurtzman and Heather Kadin will serve as executive producers. Kurtzman is also an executive producer for the hit CBS television series Scorpion and Limitless, along with Kadin and Orci, and for Hawaii Five-0 with Orci.

Star Trek, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2016, is one of the most successful entertainment franchises of all time. The original Star Trek spawned a dozen feature films and five successful television series. Almost half a century later, the Star Trek television series are licensed on a variety of different platforms in more than 190 countries, and the franchise still generates more than a billion social media impressions every month.

Born from the mind of Gene Roddenberry, the original Star Trek series debuted on Sept. 8, 1966 and aired for three seasons – a short run that belied the influence it would have for generations. The series also broke new ground in storytelling and cultural mores, providing a progressive look at topics including race relations, global politics and the environment.

“There is no better time to give Star Trek fans a new series than on the heels of the original show’s 50th anniversary celebration,” said David Stapf, President, CBS Television Studios. “Everyone here has great respect for this storied franchise, and we’re excited to launch its next television chapter in the creative mind and skilled hands of Alex Kurtzman, someone who knows this world and its audience intimately.”

“This new series will premiere to the national CBS audience, then boldly go where no first-run Star Trek series has gone before – directly to its millions of fans through CBS All Access,” said Marc DeBevoise, Executive Vice President/General Manager – CBS Digital Media. “We’ve experienced terrific growth for CBS All Access, expanding the service across affiliates and devices in a very short time. We now have an incredible opportunity to accelerate this growth with the iconic Star Trek, and its devoted and passionate fan base, as our first original series.”

“Every day, an episode of the Star Trek franchise is seen in almost every country in the world,” said Armando Nuñez, President and CEO, CBS Global Distribution Group. “We can’t wait to introduce Star Trek's next voyage on television to its vast global fan base.”

CBS All Access offers its customers more than 7,500 episodes from the current television season, previous seasons and classic shows on demand nationwide, as well as the ability to stream local CBS stations live in more than 110 markets. Subscribers can use the service online and across devices via CBS.com, the CBS App for iOS, Android and Windows 10, as well as on connected devices such as Apple TV, Android TV, Chromecast, Roku players and Roku TV, with more connected devices to come.

The new television series is not related to the upcoming feature film Star Trek Beyond which is scheduled to be distributed by Paramount Pictures in summer 2016.

Pyriel32 wrote:... the franchise still generates more than a billion social media impressions every month.

The sheer scale of everything on the Internet always boggles me a bit.

The STO forum seem to have come to the conclusion, from various bits of information received, that it is prime universe, not the reboot films' universe (and the comment that it is "not related to Star Trek Beyond" seems to imply that too). I'm pleased about that too - the first reboot film was fun (I haven't seen the others) but I get tired of every franchise having to be all "edgy" and everyone in everything being a quasi-teenage-rebel. Not that that's not fun, but there should be room for other scenarios too SOMEWHERE in fiction! (And not that the original Captain Kirk, despite being the rousing-speech-giving Pride of America and all that, didn't have an extremely finely honed sense of how far he could push his luck... )

To be honest, I'm burnt out on Iconians. I wouldn't mind another of their portals turning up for an episode, but I'd rather they not be the main villains. I say have Future Guy be the main villain, give him some proper closure. Reveal him to be a Romulan working to bring back Romulus. Have Romulans be in the background, being sneaky, being devious, never openly appearing in force, never seeing one of their ships on screen and never more than a couple of Romulans at a time. His involvement in Enterprise was laying the groundwork for Romulans to be in a position of power for this series (including giving them cloaks 100 years too early), and the season 1 finale is the new ship in the destroyed Romulus system, as the planets reappear through some funky space wedge and a flotilla of Romulan warbirds. The closing lines is Future Guy, finally revealled on the viewscreen, in full Romulan getup, and he simply states, in a nice callback to the first TNG episode: "We're back."

Obviously the Enterprise stuff will only be references said in dialogue and kept vague enough that people who haven't seen Enterprise can still follow. Something like Future Guy saying "I've been manipulating the timeline towards this event since the days before your Federation was even founded."

That's how I'd do it. And I'd also bring back Ron Jones. Because we need more of his Romulan theme.

Hmmm. I wonder if fan reaction to Renegades has something to do with this green light?

__________________________________________________________Previously known as Stunshock

Hmm, now, that's a good idea. The idea of this enemy who were fighting us without anyone ever really seeing much of them, as described in Balance of Terror, was something I wished we'd seen more of. They should let you write it

Yes, I agree, having STO's Iconians as the main villains wouldn't really work - they've had to be so heavily used and over-egged to meet the demands of what a computer game needs that it's hard to see how you'd get them back to anything that'd be convincing in a TV series. I'd say they'd probably have to agree that STO's Iconians never happened, in fact.

There'd be no reason not to have another Iconian gate episode, though (to go with the two from TNG and DS9). In fact, it might even be possible to have some live Iconians turn up from it, as a shout-out to STO's storyline. Not "the Iconians", I think it would spoil the whole mystery if we were ever able to say "oh, so THAT's what the Iconians were like", but "some Iconians" - survivors that lost their planet 200,000 years ago and have been going steadily crazier in exile ever since - we never find out what they were like before they lost their home, or whether they're all like this or, indeed, whether there are any more out there at all or whether these ones (which would undoubtedly get blown up at the end of the episode!) were the last Iconians in the universe. If there are any Romulan exiles about the place, they should be in that episode and meet them.

Id like to see it set in the same time as sto, be like a live action of the game, with say an Odyssey class as the main ship .

__________________________________________________________("Now you turn your back on, All the things that you used to preach, Now its let him live in freedom,If he lives like me"=-jim Croce)"Patron: That girl is a witch.Mal: Yeah, but she's our witch. [cocks gun] So cut her the hell down. "